Love Love Love my little Levi Love! (steph, that was for you).
He might love life a little TOO much, especially at night. He is certainly not consistent, but it seems as though he is waking up every 2 hours at night. And it seems as though I am starting to lose my mind! I am mixing up my schedules, forgetting simple things I need to do, etc. We need sleep!!!!!! After we are done with our travels, it is time to give this guy some tough love. I'm not asking for much, just 6 hours little guy, you can do it!
Helping him to sit...........I think I can...............and......down!
Such a stud. Look at my little cutie, so happy, calm and relaxed. Only took 3 months, but he got the hang of it! We have been playing more, he reaches and grabs for his toys, tries to roll over, and he really loves watching Emma. He sits in his stroller quietly during her dance class just watching all the girls. A ladies man already! He found his fingers. It is really more like a whole fist suck, but either way- it works. We hear him start to wind up his cry and now, if we are lucky, instead of the full blown ear piercing screams, we hear sweet little sucking, and it is heaven!
He feels perfect to me. He is the perfect size, the perfect weight, and he fits just perfectly over my shoulder with his head pressed against my neck. Hard to explain, but he just feels substantial- like when I hold him, he holds me back. I really can't get enough of him, I think I love this age.
The most fun ever! Emma brought out her parachute to play with me the other day, she wanted me to spin her around. By myself. It was tough, but I did it, and the belly laughs made it all worth it!
When Felix got home she made him do it, and he had his own way to play parachute, which I think even beat my way.
I really love our family time together. With two kids, it seems we spend even more time together, and it has just been the best! Today was Felix's day off, and although we did lots of chores and ran errands separately with one kid or another, we spent the better part of the afternoon together, had a homemade meal together as a family (even Levi sat in his bouncy seat at the kitchen table), and did bathtime and bedtime together. I love it!
All dressed up for her dinner date with Mommy (and Levi) while Daddy is out of town!
I only take my daughter to the best restaurants....where they have this on the walls :)
Which, I have learned, makes for pretty bad company! Just like her Daddy....so easily distracted by the game. Usually if Felix & I happen to be at a restaurant where they have TV's mounted, I make sure to leave him the chair that is not facing the TV. I didn't realize I should have done that tonight with my 2 year old!
Levi slept through all of dinner, and when Emma wasn't watching the "soccer game" (every sport is either soccer or water polo), she was LOUDLY humming to the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb, or waving to every man, lady, or little girl that was in the restaurant. All in all, it was a nice evening out with my two little loves!
Levi giggled! I promise you, he did it! But...it seems he has stage fright. Quite the opposite of his sister might I add!
I tried about 10 different times to capture his smiles and giggles on the camera, and every time I pulled out the camera he would stop. In this video, it took a while before he noticed the camera, so I was able to capture about 4 seconds of his smiles. Watch how his face gets very serious the moment he sees the camera. Enjoy!
Our last few days in FL and we are packing in as much fun as we can. We went shopping and got lots of goodies for the little ones, and even got to watch Gavin at his soccer practice this evening.
The girls sat on the blanket to watch and color
the boys were in strollers/carseats enjoying all the action
and the sisters had fun taking pictures, chatting, and snuggling the babies! And later, Emma & Ava got to play soccer with Uncle Roger. The girls were really cute in their matching dresses, chasing and kicking the ball.
Admiring such young talent on the soccer field.
Watching TV. Like father like son. He really does like it! If he is fussy while I am holding him, I try to burp him, feed him, change him, rock him, talk to him, kiss him, play with him....but it isn't until I turn him around on my lap and let him watch TV that he calms down. Hmmmm. Works for me! But probably not the best habit to get into!!!!!
It wasn't me! ....good thing she is so cute :) Ignore the binky in her mouth. It is extra easy for her to get to these 24/7 at Bubbe & Grandaddy's house since she has learned how to dive into her crib here!
We have been having fun in FL. I probably sound like I never lived here before, but man, it is HOT HOT HOT!!!! I pushed the kids in the stroller outside for my walk twice, and it was so hot that when we came inside both kids were soaked in sweat, and my face was actually burning in addition to being bright red. Emma seems to be a sweaty mess every day! I have no idea how I forgot about this heat, but I really don't remember it being so bad!!!
We met with Grandma on Monday for an indoor playdate that was a lot of fun. A new facility opened up down here and we were very excited to check it out. Emma kept running around calling for her and playing. She even got pretty jealous when Grandma would hold Levi, but we are so glad Grandma was able to make the trip to visit. It is always nice to get to spend time together! I'm so sorry I didn't get any pictures (still no camera).
...not quite sure about pineapple yet!
Levi love. I must give credit where credit is due, you are certainly making major progress in the "happy" department, it seems you start the day off strong and go downhill from there. The mornings are filled with smiles and coos, and you are even getting better during dinnertime. But bedtime still needs a bit of work! Your favorite nighttime activity lately has been relaxing with Grandaddy on the couch and watching TV. You are not a fan of being alone in the crib yet. In fact, after several attempts at getting you to snooze on your own this evening, you are now lying in bed with Bubbe peacefully asleep.
Makes my day! I'm hoping to see more and more of these!!
but...for now, this is more like it!
This afternoon Emma, Levi & I visited mom at work for lunch. After which, I drove around for about an hour while Emma napped in the car (haven't done that in over a year!), and we came home to play outside for a bit while Levi napped. Emma was playing with chalk on the patio, and she turned to me and said "I'm having so much fun mommy!". Love it. She also learned how to climb into the crib here on her own. I secretly watched to see how she did it....she just climbs up to step on the mattress and then takes a nose dive in. Not pretty, but it works! She better not try climbing OUT!
We then went over to Steph's house to eat dinner with the whole family. Emma loves going over to play with Gavin & Ava. Ava & Emma got all dressed up for their tea party. - sort of. Apparently, all Emma wanted to wear was a necklace, but Ava was all decked out. Levi snoozing away after dinner. He is a scooter now, so we have to be careful! He scoots his way all over the place when we put him on the floor. Emma & Gavin nicely playing 'cars' while Ava was going to bed.
We made it! I don't have a camera, so I missed pictures of the flight home, but it could not have gone better!! Aside from the 3 hour delay that we didn't know about until we got to the airport- everything went smoothly. My 2 little loves were perfect angels. Levi slept the entire day of our trip, only waking to eat, and Emma was all smiles, playing, dancing around the airport, and super excited for her own seat on the plane! It was actually fun to sit next to her on the plane, she was quite entertaining.
We spent the last 2 days with the family going to services and celebrating Rosh Hashanah. We had 7 adults and 5 kids at temple, quite a group, and once again, the kids behaved perfectly! Emma, Levi & I walked to temple with Saba, surviving the intense heat outside. Emma loved watching the men blow the shofar and she especially liked going up to the bimah with Bubbe. Other than that, she snuggled on us, read books, and colored. Levi slept the entire time. I like to say he was showing off- everyone came up and said how well behaved he was. It wasn't until we got in the car to head home that he started screaming at the top of his lungs!
And then we came home to relax with the family and eat dinner. She was so excited to play with her cousins that she skipped her naps, and I realized at dinner when she wasn't eating and was nearly falling asleep at the table, that not only was my poor baby tired.....she had a fever too! Poor girl, and yet, so happy all she wanted to do was play! Cousins. Emma picked up the dumbbell, started lifting it up and down and said "I'm doing exercises". Followed by "strong girl". Our friend Morgan joined us for dinner. She & Emma loved playing together. Is there anything sweeter?
I like to take pictures of my kids. And I love candid professional pictures that are taken in natural environments. If I had the right camera, and photography skills, my house would be plastered in my own photography. And although I am known to be quite frugal, on ocassion, I do get "professional" pictures taken for certain milestones (using coupons of course!). And with two children, in matching outfits that were about to be too small, I decided to get their annual sibling pictures taken now. I had two coupons, so booked two different appointments for the week. One for the two kids, and one for Emma's 2-year pictures.
I had been prepping Emma all day to do "good listening" and having her practice "smile for the lady". You can imagine our surprise when the photographer turned out to be a man. "Where is the lady? I don't want the man." And so, with me kneeling down next to her, just outside camera range, we were able to convince her to smile for the man. At one point she reached up for me and asked me to give her a big hug. I told her I would after she smiled for the camera. Mean mommy.
And mommy got a little meaner when the "professional" photographer told me to put Levi in Emma's lap, expecting her to support his fragile little head all by her two-year-old self! When I explained this wouldn't work as she was nearly dropping him on the floor, he suggested I place Levi on her back. That didn't work so well either. So mommy finally spoke up and asked mr. professional photographer for a seat for the little guy. Levi still wasn't impressed. Neither was I.
But in the end, this snobby mommy was happy with what I got for $13!! Thank you Sears! (pictures are just samples, courtesy of Sears, who hopefully, is allowing me to post these on my blog!).
Now, the big debut was only two days later.... Emma's TWO-YEAR-OLD photo shoot! This time, the photographer was a lady, Emma was thrilled. She RAN in the room, jumped on the set, and struck a pose all on her own! In fact, it was hard to get her to sit still. She did amazing!!!
I really like the pictures for what they are, but the time they spend trying to convince me to buy hundreds of dollars worth of pictures from them is really annoying to me. So much that I don't really want to go back. I had to explain several times to the lady that although I love all the pictures, I don't want 30 different pictures of her in the same dress at the same age, and no, I don't have 30 different people who want these pictures either. After about 20 minutes of convincing her I only wanted the one picture, and my children beginning to have meltdowns in the stroller, I finally stood up, said "this is the only one I want" and pushed my screaming children to the register, hoping she would follow me so I could pay and hightail it outta there!
...and yet, I will probably go back for Levi's 3 month pictures because I can't resist a good deal! Even if it means putting up with annoying salespeople....perhaps one of these days I will get enough motivation to learn photography on my own!
